The Ten to Save Aincrad
by LordDrakanoth
Summary: Kayaba Akihiko mentioned 10 unique skill users, but only Kirito and Kayaba were shown. What would happen if the other eight appeared - how would the game have changed? This story focuses on one - the struggles and victories he went through. Rewrite of the later floors; beginning plot focuses on OCs. Don't worry - still Asuna x Kirito!
1. Chapter 1

**Here we go again - looks like another SAO fanfic from me.**

**Hello, everyone. I can only hope I'll meet with more satisfaction from this than the Crimson Swordsman. I've learned a lot since I wrote that story, so I hope you guys will like this one just as much (or more. Hopefully more.)**

**As always, enjoy reading!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or any of its characters.**

* * *

I slowly opened my eyes to the sound of my annoying-as-always alarm clock, temporarily blinded by the sunlight shining through the window above me.

_Just 5 days now_, I thought.

I sat up on my bed, stretching my back and yawning, then got up and flipped my calendar onto the November page. I managed to restrain myself from smashing my alarm clock in for another day, turning off the alarm and rubbing my eyes.

My name is Rei Katsura, gaming extraordinaire. In my mind, at the very least. Really, I'm just an average 13-year-old – slightly-messy black hair, gray eyes, and a build that erred on the slight side. Beyond that, I was just a quiet, somewhat-scholarly kid who never made any trouble in class and tried not to stand out too much.

After quickly throwing on a pair of black jeans, an SAO promotional shirt and a burgundy sweatshirt, I pushed open my bedroom door and walked into the living room, only to find my older brother already busy cooking breakfast in the connected kitchen.

"I thought it was my turn to cook," I said, scratching my head a little bashfully.

"You'd probably use sugar instead of salt and then burn it all anyways, you're so affixed on that game that's going up soon," he said, looking at me over his shoulder. "What was it called – Sword something, wasn't it?"

"Sword Art Online," I corrected him, flopping onto the couch. "And I'm not that bad!"

My brother's – cousin, in reality – name was Osamu Nakane. At 22 years old, his hair is a kind of golden-brown with hazel eyes to compliment it. He isn't particularly large, but under his average build he's a lot more muscular than you would first think (as proved by a series of arm wrestling matches I've had with him). To top it off he's tall – just under 2 meters.

He worked at a local printing company. He'd always wanted to write a book, but between juggling me and my sister, college online classes, and work, he'd just never managed to got around to it.

"The first thing you do when you get in the door is ask your sister for any updates on the game," he said. "Only after she's informed you on every little detail do you take your shoes off and say you're home."

I blushed slightly, mainly because everything he'd just said was completely true.

Seemingly as if on cue, my sister walked into the room and sat in the armchair, setting her laptop down on the table and promptly getting set up for a day of gaming. "'Morning" happened to be all she got out before putting on headphones and becoming lost to the world.

My sister – who, in fact, was actually my cousin's cousin – is the only person I know who can out-game me. Her parents died in a car accident three years ago, and since then she's been entrusted into the care of my cousin. Her blonde hair is long enough to stretch to her waist, slightly curly, and surprisingly soft (yes, I had to try feeling it at least once). She has striking blue eyes and was of a height with me, at about 170 cm. She's a NEET, since she never really wanted to go to school after the accident and my cousin didn't force her, with the name of Rin Uemura; also my gaming partner of choice.

"Not beta testing today?" I asked her as the smell of breakfast wafted throughout the house.

"Servers are down for maintenance," she replied, leaning over and typing furiously on the keyboard.

"Any news beyond that?"

"Nope."

"Nothing?"

"No."

"Are you su-"

She gave me a sharp glance, then went back to her game. I sat there sulking until my brother finally said that breakfast was ready.

I got up and walked over to the dining table, tapping my sister on the shoulder on the way since she probably hadn't heard our soft-spoken brother.

After Rin had decided to take her headphones off and sit down at the table, I ate my breakfast quickly, then grabbed my schoolbag and threw my shoes on. "See you later!" I said, giving a quick wave then disappearing out the door.

I was a couple blocks away from the house when my phone rang. "Hello?"

"You realize it's only 7:20, right?" my sister said from the other end of the line.

"I...like to be early?"

"There's nothing to do before school starts. Anyhow, you're supposed to be sick, remember?"

"...I'm sure I can find something to do. And I feel fine right now."

She sighed. "That's what you said yesterday, before you said your brain exploded."

I huffed out a sigh. "Fine." I turned and started walking back to the house. "I'll see you back home, then," I said, before hanging up.

I never really understood why, but shortly after my parents died two years ago I started getting infrequent yet unbearable headaches. The doctors all said it was some sort of reaction, but all I knew was that they hurt like hell.

I walked back into the house and took my shoes off, my cheeks tinged pink partly from the wind and partly out of embarrassment.

My sister glanced over from the armchair she'd situated herself in again. "You should really let yourself recover more, you know. SAO's turning you into an idiot."

I stuck my tongue out at her and withdrew to my room, booting my PC up and putting some headphones on.

My sister walked into my room a couple dozen seconds later. "Servers are back up," she said, looking meaningfully at my computer.

I looked at her sullenly. "You have a laptop and a PC in your room."

"But yours is better!" she said, smiling brightly at me.

"Use the one you'll be using when the full game comes out," I retorted, turning in my chair and focusing back on what game to play.

"You're no fun," she pouted, walking out and into her room across the hall.

I sighed. "Why'd she get to be a beta tester and not me?" I glanced at my calendar. _5 days. Just 5._

Until my world changed forever.

* * *

**Not quite a prologue, not quite a chapter...whatever it was, there you have it.**

**Getting right to SAO this fanfic. I don't feel too much of a need to write much about what happened beforehand - and of course, flashbacks are always an option. In regards to canonity - read both Volume 1 and Volume 2, so hopefully I'll be doing fine on that front, though the story will be altered here and there. I wouldn't call this a complete rewrite - in fact, for a large part of the story it will be completely focused on the OCs and their own plot - but...well, you'll just have to find out.**

**Thanks for reading, everyone! Depending on how my creativity fares, I'll have Chapter 2 up as soon as I feel like it! (...jeez, that sounds bad...but it also happens to be the truth, so. Luckily I feel I can work with this story - moreso than the Crimson Swordsman, at the very least. Please excuse the abuse of parantheses.)**

**Seriously though - thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi, guys (and gals)!**

**I feel like my writing's improved a lot from my last fanfic - I attribute this mostly to reading the first couple volumes of SAO and learning how the author wrote, but I'm sure you guys helped with your reviews of the Crimson Swordsman too.**

**For some reason I feel like I just can't write long author's notes anymore (not that it's a bad thing) so I'll just go ahead and say -**

**Enjoy reading!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online.**

* * *

The days slowly floated by while I did a combination of gaming and checking every message board I knew for updates on SAO.

While I knew I could probably have gone to school the last few days before SAO was released, I couldn't help but concentrate completely on Sunday, November 6th, 2022. My brother, being the awesome brother he is, didn't bother pushing me since he knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate in school anyways.

Then, finally, it came. I was in my bed, NerveGear hooked up, copy of SAO ready at 12:45, just waiting for 1:00 to finally appear on the Gear's interface.

I could barely hold in my enthusiasm at finally being able to play the world's first VRMMORPG. The day I heard about it, I wanted it. When my sister was miraculously chosen as one of a thousand beta testers, my longing for it increased even more. When she was waiting for me one day after school with a copy of it in her hands – well, I just couldn't wait. The days I've waited have all felt like their own lifetimes; my life was all leading up to this point.

And practically before the time even fully displayed, I was shouting "Link Start!" and flying through the usual maintenance checks.

And then, suddenly, I was there. In the world I had wanted to see since I first heard of it.

«Aincrad».

I glanced around a bit, taking it all in, before focusing on the task at hand. _She said we'd meet on the south end, near the bench on the eastern side..._ I spotted a female avatar that looked pretty similar to her IRL and walked over.

"That you, Rin?" I called to her before standing in front of her. I noticed she looked pretty much the same, though she'd changed her eye color to green and shortened her hair a bit.

"Call me by my IGN," she said, looking me up and down. I basically looked the same as well, though I'd made my hair a slightly darker shade of black.

"Can't call you by your IGN if I don't know what it is," I said, before holding out a hand for her to shake. "My name's Katsurei."

She took my hand and shook it. "Reina. I can still just call you Rei, right?"

"If I can just call you Rin."

She sighed. "I guess. It's close enough to my IGN anyways."

I nodded, opening and closing my hands a couple of times. "So, I'd assume we're going out into the field?"

"Yeah. You're going to be pretty useless until you actually learn how to move and fight in this world." She grinned at me, then turned and started walking to the exit out of town.

"Harsh...but true, I suppose," I said, scratching my head and following her outside.

What I saw outside took my breath away. "You're...sure this is a «game», right?"

Plains seemed to stretch endlessly anywhere I looked. The level of detail on the graphics was incredible; I didn't even know it was possible for a game of this scale to look this good.

She smirked at me. "An «RPG», in fact. So if we don't hurry, all the easy monsters are already going to be hunted down and we're going to be stuck in the «Starting City» until they respawn."

I happened a glance at the mass of players still standing in the central square. "...wait, shouldn't we go and get some equipment first?"

"The «Unarmed» skill's useful to have in case you can't use your weapon for some reason. Besides, it'll be easier with a weapon since you have more range."

"So teaching it to me the hard way, so I can figure it myself out the easy way."

She nodded. "Exactly. Now let's go, before all the other players come to their senses." She started jogging in a random direction, and I followed her, still marveling at the level of detail the game had.

She pointed at a «Frenzy Boar» roaming the field. "Try fighting it."

I looked at her, exasperated. "No teaching at all or anything? What if I die?"

"If you die you'll never get to be my student again, seeing as that's the easiest «monster» the game has to offer." She smirked and pushed me toward it.

As soon as it spotted me, it gave out a squeal and started charging towards me. I, still unsure what to do, simply sidestepped, entirely unsure what to do.

"Open your window and check your skills!" Rin called out to me, making a motion with her right hand.

I followed suit, sidestepping the Boar again as it charged, and opened my skills menu. I quickly read through the «Unarmed» skill description and what I had unlocked in it, then equipped it and got ready for the next charge.

It turned around and charged at me again, letting out a squeal in the process. This time I surged forward to meet it, putting my hands in position for a throwing skill. The system recognized my pose and quickly moved to toss the boar a few feet away, shaving off a bit of its HP bar and allowing me to go on the offensive.

I charged toward the downed Boar and unleashed a two-hit combo, taking off a fair bit of its HP, followed up with a quick strike by my left fist, then used the most powerful skill I currently had: a powerful six-hit combo that took its HP into the red zone.

I leaped back, unsure how the Boar would react to having most of its HP taken off. It staggered to its feet and let out a guttural roar one wouldn't think would come from a pig, before turning to me and charging at me faster than it had before.

I crouched down slightly, then when it was within range released the final skill in my arsenal: a powerful single kick, which successfully took out the remainder of its HP and caused a purple window to show up with the XP and Col I'd gotten.

I glanced at the measly amount of loot I'd acquired, then turned to look at my sister, who gave me a thumbs-up and grinned. "You're a fast learner."

"Kinda had to in that situation, lest I get run over by 200 pounds of boar," I said somewhat sarcastically.

She shrugged and walked up to me. "Worked, didn't it?"

"So...are we getting weapons yet?" I asked.

"Nope. You're still in training." She smirked and poked my chest before taking off in a northward direction.

I sighed and followed her, already knowing this was going to be a long grind.

I finished the last Dire Wolf of the day off with a new skill I'd learned, «Viper Strike» - a quick, vicious strike that served as an excellent finisher.

I gave a quick look at the loot, then opened my menu. By 5:00 I was already a good way to level 3 and had gotten my «Unarmed» skill to level 6.

"I think I'll log out for now and get started on some of the homework I missed out on," I said to my sister, who was halfway to level 3 herself.

"Tell Onee-san I'll be back for supper," she said, closing her menu and looking around for any more monsters.

"'Kay." I navigated the menu to where the button to log out was -

Only to find it wasn't there.

"That's a pretty bad bug to have your first day..." I muttered.

My sister made a "hm?" sound and turned to me.

"The log out button isn't in the menu," I said. "It was there when I logged on, but there must've been a bug or something."

"But SAO's been practically bug-free, even since the beta," Rin said. "Having a bug like that on your first day...that could be pretty fatal, since we're stuck here until they fix it."

I sighed. "Well, at the very least...no math homework for now." I grinned at her. "I'll check again at 5:30. For now, I guess we're doing more grinding?"

"I was thinking we cold go buy some weapons now. Won't break our Col reserves."

I made a triumphant gesture with my fist. "Finally! An actual weapon!"

"Yeah, yeah. I just hope you won't kill yourself with it," she replied dryly.

I glared at her, then started walking back in the direction of the «Starting City».

I stared at the sun slowly dipping towards the horizon. "I still find it hard to believe this is a game..."

"Beyond things looking more polygonal it's pretty realistic," she agreed, gazing at the sun herself.

A couple dozen minutes later we were back in the plaza, now mostly deserted.

Rin gestured down a street. "The weapon shop's this way."

I nodded and started following her, listening to the NPC merchants' cries from their street stalls and looking at all the shop fronts and stalls. "It's exactly like we're in medieval Europe," I said, awed by the attention to detail.

"You get used to it eventually," she threw over her shoulder, then walked into one of the stores.

I followed her in, casting a few looks around. The weapon shop was, in a word, cozy – little sense as it made. A fireplace cheerily burned on one wall, fighting off the autumn chill, and weapons of all kinds sit on racks or simply on the floor all around the shop.

I walked up to the shop owner – a middle-aged man with gray hair and a fairly modest beard – and tapped the counter a couple of times to bring up the menu.

By the time my sister had already chosen her weapon and materialized it – a rapier – I was still deciding between all the weapon choices, mainly torn between a simply sword and shield or a greatsword.

She stared at me and tapped her foot impatiently, so I did some quick math and then bought all three items. I navigated quickly to my inventory and materialized the sword and shield, which I then strapped to my back.

As the merchant thanked us for our business, my sister asked, "Want something to eat?"

I looked at her curiously. "Why would we eat in-game if we're going to be eating IRL soon?"

She shrugged. "You get hungry here, too. Don't ask me why."

"I need to check on the bug again, first," I said, opening my menu and checking for the log out button. I shook my head. "Still not fixed."

"Have you tried contacting a GM?" she asked, opening her menu as well and typing out a quick message.

"Yeah, I'll try that," I said, doing the same.

She grinned at me. "So, since we'll be stuck here a little longer, do you want to eat or not?"

I shrugged. "Nothing better to do, I suppose." I glanced up and down the street quickly, before pointing to a cafe. "There?"

She nodded. "That's my favorite place, actually." She grinned and started walking towards it.

I sat down at one of the outside tables and tapped the table twice, glancing at the menu.

"Even the food's European," I said, deciding on a simple sandwich and a glass of water.

"Like I said, you get used to it," she said, deftly navigating the menu to order what she wanted.

When the food came, I bit into the sandwich – surprisingly good for how simple it was – and finished in a few minutes, feeling comfortably full. I stretched, waiting for my sister to finish, then got up.

I glanced at the time – 5:55 – and checked for the log out button one last time. "It's still not there!" I exclaimed, exasperated.

She finished and got up. "Seriously? They should have fixed it by now." She rapidly tapped some things, then frowned. "No response from the GM either..."

I shook my head. "Maybe it's more complicated than we think." I started walking back to the main plaza.

"Yeah. Hopefully." She followed behind me, still frowning and looking mildly worried.

When we got back, I sat down on a bench and marveled at the level of detail in the flowers and central clock tower once again. "Still...might not be so bad to be stuck here a while, I guess," I said, thinking.

"For a while. I wouldn't want to be stuck in a game any longer than that."

In a few minutes I'd regret those words as blue particles started shimmering around both of us, only to place us back where we were.

"...a forced teleport?" my sister muttered, as players starting appearing all around us.

And so the game began.

* * *

**A much better beginning than my first, I'd say. I'm certainly liking this story a lot more than the Crimson Swordsman, for whatever reason.**

**We'll see how soon I have Chapter 3 up - I'm feeling good about this today, so it might even be out later today (no promises, though). I also hope the MC's a little less OP than Drakan was - I agree that he was _just a little_ OP. [sarcasm]**

**Quick little edit here - I see I didn't set any actual name for Chapter 1, but sadly I have no idea what I'd name the chapters. So, guess I'm being generic this go around. Hooray!**

**And as always - thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello, everyone! Long time no see!**

**About halfway through the chapter, I just couldn't get enough motivation to write more than two sentences at a time. Finally broke through the writer's block today, and here's the product. Happy reading!**

* * *

"...Now, I have finished the official tutorial for «Sword Art Online». Players, I wish you luck."

Since Akihiko Kayaba had appeared and given us this mirror, I'd been staring at it, wondering why I wasn't scared to bits and instead had this steely, feverish glint in my eyes.

I finally looked up, only to find just about everyone looked different in some way – and that most of the girls had turned into guys.

I looked back at the hand mirror. _Ah. So that's what this was for..._ I thought, dropping it and letting it shatter into a bunch of little particles that dissipated a few seconds later.

I got up, stretched, and looked at my sister. "You don't seem very fazed by this," she said, worry in her eyes.

I grinned. "I always try harder in games with permadeath."

She just stared at me for a few seconds as the players began to go into an uproar around us, then burst out laughing. "You're either the most idiotic or brave person I met..." she said, eventually dying away into a fit of giggles and then composing herself again.

"Probably idiotic," I said, glancing around the plaza. I took note of the rather skewed male:female ratio, then looked at my sister. Looked back at the crowd. Looked to my sister.

I took her hand and pulled her up, then walked to the edge of the plaza. "Hey – what're you doing?" she stammered out, stumbling a bit before regaining her balance.

"Getting you away from all the 9000+ guys without girlfriends," I said, breaking through the wall of people and standing just outside the plaza.

"...oh," she said, blushing profusely and letting go of my hand. "What do we do now?"

"Shouldn't the beta tester know?" I asked, but then cut her off when she was about to speak. "Probably go to the next town, since the quests here have probably been taken and the monsters will be dead in a few hours."

She nodded. "We should be able to make it there, even at level 2. I know the most dangerous places, so we should be fine...I hope."

I grinned reassuringly at her. "C'mon, we'll be fine." I started walking towards the main gate.

"How can you be so calm in a situation like this?!" she shouted at me, stamping her foot. "Everyone else is scared to death, including me, and you don't even care! You think it's just another game!"

I turned, eyes wide open with surprise. "I...honestly don't know. But to me, it's true, it _is_ just another game to me. Another permadeath game." I shrugged. "Maybe I'm just better at ignoring the obvious than other people."

She glared at me, her eyes watery. "You're definitely the most idiotic person I know."

I walked up to her and looked into her eyes. "Trust me. We're not going to die."

"Big words, when we probably will," she said, continuing to glare.

I ruffled her hair and grinned. "Try being an optimist. It's a lot more fun."

She wiped her eyes angrily. "Fine, but let's focus on getting to the next town first."

"That's the spirit." I gestured to the gate. "Lead the way."

"Yeah..." she mumbled, before shaking her head once and setting out for the exit.

I followed, thinking. _Why _aren't_ I scared to die in this game? Then again, I've always felt more at home in some game then outside in the real world. But even in a permadeath game, you get a second chance... I don't have the luxury of just creating a new character this time, do I?_ I huffed a sigh. _Thinking this stuff isn't going to get me out of this_.

I loosed my sword in its scabbard a little and stepped out of town the second time this day, my mouth set in a grim line and my eyes burning with determination. _I guess I just have to win the game, then._

A couple of hours later, we'd finally made it to the next village – a cluster of quaint wooden cottages arranged around a central square.

I glanced at my HP bar. 132/453. My sister's bar was a little emptier than mine, since she was more geared towards offense.

She sighed and slid her sword back into its scabbard. "Made it at last."

"We're also both level 3 now," I said, ever the optimist.

"I feel like I could collapse..." she mumbled, swaying a bit. "Let's inn for the night."

I nodded and started towards the inn, grabbing her arm to steady her on the way. She trudged along after me.

After my sister had collapsed into a chair near the inn's fireplace, I tapped the counter a couple of times and ordered a room for the night. A key materialized in my hand, which I then held up in Rin's direction.

She stumbled to her feet, looking rather akin to a zombie, and started walking up the stairs. I followed and opened the door to our room, after which she promptly fell on the bed nearest the door.

I unequipped all my armor and weapons and followed suit on the other bed a few moments later. "Eventful release day, huh..." I murmured.

"Yeah...we should probably check for any quests first thing tomorrow, before someone else takes them," she quietly said back, rolling over to face me and yawning.

I nodded and yawned myself. "'Night, Nee-chan."

"'Night, Nii-chan."

I blinked a couple of times to get the sleep out of my eyes, then got up and stretched, yawning.

"About time you got up," Rin said, getting up from her bed and tossing me a piece of bread. "C'mon, we're going questing today."

I caught the bread, then rubbed an eye with my free hand. "It's only 8:13..."

She gave me an annoyed glance. "I set my alarm for 7, thinking you'd be a little less lazy." She shook her head and walked out the door.

"There are alarms...?" I pondered, then hurried and caught up with her, taking a bite of bread every once in a while. "There are alarms?" I asked her, taking another bite. It was warm and fluffy, obviously just out of the oven. Not exactly my usual choice of breakfast, but it worked.

"Yeah, you just go into your menu and select the time," she threw over her shoulder, heading for the nearest exit out of town.

"What's our first quest?" I asked, finishing my quick breakfast and heading into the menu to re-equip my equipment.

"Take out a dozen Dire Wolves that have been harassing villagers," she said, bringing up her menu.

I nodded. "Easy enough. They're not much of a problem anymore."

"Yeah. Most of these are pretty simple, we should have a fair amount done by lunch." She gave me a meaningful look. "Though we'd have more if you'd actually gotten up earlier."

I shrugged. "I don't control when I wake up."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Let's go."

Turned out her prediction was fairly accurate – we had 5 out of the 8 quests we had done by lunch.

I sunk into one of the chairs at the village restaurant. "All that running around was exhausting..."

My sister sat in the chair opposite me and opened up her menu, doing a quick scan of the loot we'd gotten. "Worth it though. We're both on our way to an upgrade on every equip slot."

I stretched, tipping my chair back a little, then sat forward and tapped the table. "Let's see..."

She tapped the table as well, glancing over the menu and making a vague "hm" sound.

I eventually decided on a bowl of vegetable soup and some water, then settled into my chair to get comfortable.

Rin quickly made a couple selections, then sighed and leaned back in her chair a bit.

After making quick work of my simple lunch, I stood up. "Which quest do you think we should do first?"

"Probably this one," she said, opening up her menu and making it visible to me, then pointing to one. "Some grinding of easy monsters will help us get warmed up for the miniboss in that quest."

I nodded. "I agree. Let's go."

Roughly an hour later, I slid my sword into its sheathe and sighed. "That was…a lot more enemies than I thought."

My sister nodded. "It was a good warmup, though. Ready for the miniboss?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, I suppose. I mean, the only other quest we have is just finding some random item."

She opened up her menu and quickly glanced through the quests. "It should be…that way." She pointed in a northwesterly direction.

About half an hour later, we stood at an arch made of a bunch of barbed branches weaved together. A fence expanded outward from the arch for about 100 meters and two goblin-looking humanoids seemed to guard the arch.

"Think they'll be friendly?" I joked, smirking.

"They might need a little persuasion." Rin grinned at me and drew her sword.

"Good. My sword arm needs a bit of a workout after that long walk." I charged the leftmost guard, deftly defeating it before it could do much of anything with a few quick sword skills.

As the monster's particles disappeared into the air, I looked over at the right guard to see it overwhelmed by the rapier's quick combos. Seconds later it fell to the ground and burst into particles.

I walked through the arch into what appeared to be a village. Rudimentary tents made of animal pelts and sticks were scattered about the enclosure. Directly opposite of where I stood I saw a massive goblin sitting on what appeared to be a wooden throne.

I pointed at the beast. "Looks like that's our quarry."

Rin appeared beside me and nodded. "Big, fat, and ugly. Fits the usual description."

I started walking towards it, but about halfway there two goblins intercepted me. I quickly parried the first one's blow and narrowly sidestepped the other, expected some kind of attack like this.

I blocked another blow, then saw my sister flash by and engage the other one. I used one of my combo skills to take it down to about half HP, then took the rest of it in a series of quick strikes.

The goblin chieftain didn't seem particularly impressed at my display, but instead decided to slowly rise out of its throne and pick up a huge axe leaning against a lantern pole next to his seat.

"Looks like he's ready to go," I said, as my sister watched her enemy disappear.

The monster walked slowly towards us, before suddenly putting on a burst of speed and charging at me.

As it got within range, it swung horizontally at me, but I was already in the air, jumping over the chieftain and landing at its back, quickly chaining as many combos as I could before it broke away and turned around.

Changing tactics, it switched its axe to a more defensive position and seemed to taunt us. I exchanged a quick glance with my sister, then flanked the beast as she rushed it head-on. A series of quick flashes made it apparent that the axe's speed wasn't even close to matching my sister's, and the monster's health bar depleted steadily.

As it was distracted by Rin's series of attacks, I rushed in and cut the backs of the beast's ankles. It kept its footing for a few moments longer, but then fell over backwards. I severed its head with a quick strike, and the last of its HP vanished.

I high-fived my sister, grinning, then turned to look around the village. After a quick glance around, I decided to take a look through the chieftain's tent while my sister combed through the loot we'd acquired.

It was sparsely furnished with some crude wood furniture, so the large diamond sitting on a primitive dresser stuck out immediately. I picked it up, inspecting it, then put it in my bag and walked back out.

"Anything of interest?" Rin asked as I walked back into November sun.

I held up the diamond. "I believe this finishes the other quest we have."

She nodded. "Looks like it. A lot of RPGs do this kind of thing: kill a miniboss for one quest, take one of the miniboss's items for another."

I grinned. "Does that mean we get the rest of the day to relax?"

"Nope. Those were only half the quests, I just didn't tell you."

"Dang. I was looking forward to a new town tomorrow." I sighed. "And next time don't keep a bunch of quests from me."

She shrugged. "Didn't want you killing yourself from trying to get them all done today."

"Does that mean we can relax for the rest of today?" I asked, smirking.

"…Fine." She managed an unhappy face a few seconds before grinning back. "By the way, here's a sword for you." She tossed me a giant two-handed sword, which I managed to catch without falling over from the weight.

Neither of us were prepared for that first boss fight.

* * *

**Now that I'm back in school, I have study halls to work on this, so hopefully I won't suffer from writer's block for Chapter 4. Let's hope I get it out soon!**

**As always, thanks for reading, everyone! I have good feelings about where this story's going...even if it takes me forever to release chapters.**

**I know some of you were sad to see the Crimson Swordsman go...I'll have to see whether I decide to write again on that or not. I'll think about it, and hopefully get an answer to you guys by Chapter 4 (or maybe release a chapter...but try not to be too crushed if I don't).**

**I'll see you all next chapter!**


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